The Young and the Restless Performer of the Week: Sean Dominic as Nate Hastings 

The boyfriend's always the last to know. At least that was the case on The Young and the Restless for Nate Hastings and his duplicitous girlfriend, Audra. For his portrayal of a man determined to get to the truth, Soap Central is bestowing Performer of the Week for Y&R honors on Sean Dominic, Nate's portrayer.

The Young and the Restless performer, Sean Dominic

Nate's not a man who jumps to conclusions, but once he had been given enough circumstantial evidence and testimonials by close friends and family, he had to sit down with Audra (Zuleyka Silver) and give her a chance to come clean.

The suspicions had been building for a while. He pretty much begged Audra to let him know if the accusations about her working with Victor (Eric Braeden) were true or not. What the viewers saw, and we're not sure Audra did, was that Nate knew Audra was guilty. He just needed her to say it.

The irony is, if she had confessed, they might still be together. "We can take it on board and go from there, but you can't keep dancing around it with me," Nate stated. Audra had repeated her routine about Kyle being jealous and wanting to get her back so many times that Nate could probably have repeated it verbatim.

We saw in Dominic's eyes that Audra's version of the situation was no longer swaying Nate. "Stop grasping at straws and trying to convince me that what I think, what I know, deep down in my gut, isn't real," Nate stated.

Dominic brought tons of passion to these scenes, but he didn't play anger as much as he did frustration that the woman he trusted was lying to him. A lesser actor might have resorted to shouting and screaming, but Dominic never lost sight of the fact that his character is a man who wants to make his relationship work.

The script called for Nate to move from denial and demand the truth. Domnic stepped up and brought an unrelenting drive to his character as he continued to pummel away so he could get that truth. Nate wasn't looking to be "right," but he wanted to bring honesty to his relationship with Audra -- something that she couldn't bring herself to do.

Nate was a doctor — not a lawyer — but he charged ahead like a skilled attorney by asking Audra to explain her decision to walk away from a powerful business partner like Victor. She was unconvincing in her responses.

The Young and the Restless, bad timing

As Audra made her way out of Crimson Lights, Cane (Billy Flynn) was making his way in. While Nate probably would have ripped into the man known as "Aristotle Dumas" anyway, his encounter with Cane was more intense because of Nate's frustrations with Audra.

"Anger wouldn't begin to describe what I'm feeling right now," a controlled Nate informed Cane. He blasted the billionaire over the loss of his half-brother, Damian (Jermaine Rivers), and also, Chance (Conner Floyd). "There was literally no reason for him to be at this business retreat," Nate snarked, justifiably, "where two good men and your mentally unbalanced assistant ended up dead."

Make no mistake -- Nate is furious with Cane and has every reason to be. But Domnic brought an added level of frustration to his character as his bumping into Cane came right after his futile talk with the woman he loves.

"Oh, and if you do feel guilty about Damian and Chance, you should," Nate told Cane, looking him directly in the eye.

Devon's perspective

Nate's next stop was Society, where he had a much more pleasant conversation with Devon (Bryton James). Nate recapped his encounter with Audra at Crimson Lights. He wondered if he'd done the right thing by accusing her of lying to him.

Nate lamented that Audra had given her more of the same song and dance, and that she ended things. Supportive words from Devon let Nate know that he'd taken the right path. We saw Dominic play Nate as a bit relieved. Nate knew he had a safe refuge with his cousin.

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Kudos to The Young and the Restless leading man Sean Dominic, whose character pushed for an answer, but now has to live with the response he received.

Catch all new episodes of The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS and Paramount Plus.

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